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I have just finished reading through the article and all i have to say is that although certain parts contain certain degrees of hyperbole the basic premise is true. Russia is still in essence a global super-power (even though conventional wisdom states the US is the only remaining super -power). After all Russia still possesses enough nuclear weapons to destroy life as we know it several times over, and then after that use its bio-chemical tech (which was suppossed to have been canned but due to recent reports has been proven to be still present) to finishe the job (actually i saw a PBS report that stated the pathogenic agents developed by Russia/USSR were enough to destroy the world 7-8 times over. Some of the more exotic batches tried to splice viruses with the potency of Ebola and Marburg with the ease of spread of Influenza).

Thus Russia is still a force to be respected.

However i still say it would not be in Russias best interest to attack the US. First of all it would not win (neither would we for that matter). The reason is that although both we and the Russians have destroyed a significant portion of our nuke forces we still have the ability to destroy each other under MAD! And personally i think the reason we have been destroying our nuke forces is to get rid of the obsolete missiles and just remain with the newest minutemen and Tridents. Same thing applies to Russia ....when the destroy their MIRV SS-18s and started putting in the single warhead Topol-Ms people started applauding ....but even if the Topol-M is a sinlge warhead missile it possessed such advanced tech that it is reputed to be immune to US anti-ballistic missile defenses (it can do moves such as the so-called side maneuver [bokovoy manevr] - the ability to dodge anti-missile defenses. Topol-M will disorient enemy anti-missile defenses. It will maneuver to create a false trail. It is also described as an evasive capability with a "lateral anti-missile maneuver.). And by the way the topol-M can be easily refitted with MIRV (although the warheads would obviously be smaller).

Thus the cutting down of arms is nothing to be cheerful about , at least not to the point of boundless exuberance.

However i still assert that Russia has no reason to get itself into a fight that would have no winner. If we were talking about some Jehadi Islamic nation that advocates mass suicide that would make sense ...but the Russians care about their kids and will not risk their destruction just to get the US. Aftera ll in a nuke fight between the US and Russia both nations would be seriously 'altered'....someone say green-glows for the next 50 K years.

Thus the Russians are to be respected, but luckily (unlike the Islamists) they care about life and would not do something stupid.

And chances are in the future the only country that will be closer to the US than Russia will be Great Britain. I see an era where the three (the US, GB, and Russia) bunch together for mutual gains.

Thus the whol 'Red Dawn' concept needs to be removed from Russia and stuck where it is most applicable .....towards China!

I keep trying to make similar points. But the .... shallow thinkers here seem to want to avoid them.

Granted, I'm not a military analyst.
But some things are obvious.

Russia has a severe problem with Muslim terrorists.
They share a LAND border with these nutcases..... enough said.

China - this one could take a while.
China is surrounded to the South and the West by mountains. China is blocked on the east by water.

The only clear path for armor is to the north. If China wants to add land or resources, they're not going to be able to cross into India. Armor will be extremely vulnerable in the VERY HIGH mountains.
Like us, Russia has a severe immigration problem. But theirs is worse. A longer border. And MORE immigrants, with even LESS security.

There are millions of Chinese immigrants in eastern Russia (Siberia).

It would be suicidal for Russia to attack us. We have common enemies. We have much more in common intellectually and culturally.

And we are not a clear and present danger.
We're wondering WHERE China can hit us with nukes. China can hit ALL of Russia right now.